Last week, I blogged about Sam Ruby's trouble with RSS clients that keep requesting his old feed. Most of the response was WTF? Most developers didn't understand. I thought it was time that I went over this issue in order to disseminate this knowledge. When processing RSS requests, their are two HTTP responses which have special meaning that affect the life-cycle of the feed.
- The first is an HTTP 301 Permanent Redirect. When a client receives this type of response, he should update his database with the newly return redirect URL. A sample and minimal HTTP 301 response follows.
HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently Location: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheRSSBlog
In some case, the client software may want to prompt the user to confirm if this action is acceptable or if it should be ignored. In any case, the client should redirect to the new location. - The second is an HTTP 410 Gone response. When a client receives this type of response, he should remove the feed from his polling schedule. A sample and minimal HTTP 410 response follows.
HTTP/1.1 410 Gone
Again, the client software may want to prompt the user to confirm the feed removal.
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